Process for humidifying finisher laps of cotton



Aug. 17 1926. 1,596,715

, J. 1.. BYERS ET AL PROCESS FdR HUMIDIFYING FINISHER LAPS OF COTTON Filed March 6, 1926 01' m X 2 a m LU I "3 z E I .g'uvcnl'om /3 JAMES L.BYEES q 2.5. PHTCHEM.

Patented Aug. 17, 192 6;

UNITED. STATES PATENT OFF-ICE.

JAMES L. BYE-RS AND ROBERT S. MITCHEM, OF ALE XiANDER CI II'IY,

PROCESS FOR EUMIDIFYING FINISHER LAPS OI COTTON.

Application filed March c, 1926. Serial m. 92,960.

Our invention relates to a new and improved process for humidifying cotton laps and particularly finisher cotton laps.

In the spinning of cotton, usually the cotton leaves the picker room practically bone dry and thus is short about eight percent of the moisture which the fiber requires for its proper strength and treatment. Various means have been employed to restore the humidity to the cotton and in the present general practice the humidification of the carding room and spinning room has been relied upon to restore the proper moisture content in the cotton fiber. It has also been 1 suggested, though so far as we are aware it has not been practiced, to spray the raw cotton when it is first rolled into sheets or laps. The objection to the latter process is that the cotton sheet' or lap'after being W) sprayed must be subjected to a number of treatments before it leaves the finisher picker, and in these treatments this added moisture is largely lost so that the actual moisture content of the cotton fiber in the 1% finisher lap cannot be accurately controlled. Moreover, where the moisture is applied to the cotton during the preliminary picking treatment, if sufficient moisture is introduced to leave the finisher lap with eight percent of moisture, it will be found that there is too much moisture in the cotton for its proper treatment and effective cleaning in the breaker and intermediate pickers.

In order that the problem of properly and accurately humidifying the finisher laps may be solved, we have conceived the idea of with-holding the spraying of the fiber until it reaches the finisher picker and we thus apply the moisture by spraying at a @139 point where treatment of the lap in an unhumidified atmosphere has been completed and it will be noted that the sprayed lap as it leaves the finisher picker goes directly to the carding room where the humidified atmosphere will preventfurther loss of moisture from the cotton laps. Hence, it follows that an accurate and correct amount of moisture can be added to the laps at the finisher picker and that the moistened cotton can be made to retain this amount of added moisture due to the fact that it re ceives no further treatment in unhumidified atmos here.

As illustrative of an apparatus capable of carrying out our above process, we show 1n the drawmgs in side elevation a finisher picker comprising a lap apron frame 1 havmg stop bearings 2 to receive the pins of the several laps 3, 4, 5 and 6 which are to be .fed by means of the apron 7 to a beater 8 whence the treated fiber asses between the screens in a screen cham er 9 which discharges the cotton in a layer 10 that passes throu h suitable calendar rolls 11 and is woun into the finisher lap 12. The laps 3, 4, 5 and 6 from which the cotton layers are supplied to the apron usually come to the finisher picker from an intermediate'picker, the laps having been first treated on a breaker picker.

Wearrange an atomizer spray 13 to which am and water are supplied respectively by the pipes 14 and 15 and which will operate, in the manner well understood in this art, to direct a spray both on the layer 10 and on the lap 12 thus applying moisture to both sides of the lap layers as wound into the lap, and the finisher lap, as thus humidified, is transported directly to the carding room where the humidification of the atmosphere will prevent the evaporation of the moisture introduced into the lap by the spray.

Our invention can of course be carried out by other means of introducing moisture than the spray shown, and it is contemplated that any practical and convenient means for moistening the layer of cotton that is wound into the finisher lap at the finisher picker may be employed.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure byLetters Patent, is

1 The hereindescribed process for humidifymg cotton laps, which consists in introducing into the cotton layer as discharged from the finisher picker requisite moisture to restore its natural moisture content.

2. The hereindescribed process of humid- I ifying cotton laps, which consists in spraying on the cotton layer as it is rolled into the finisher lap the requisite amount of moisture to'substantially restore its natural fer-ring the moistened finisher'la without moisture content. further treatment directly into t e humid- 10 3. The hereindescribed process of humidified atmosphere of the carding room.

ifying cotton laps for spinning, which con- In testimony whereof we 'afiix our signasists 1n spraying on the cotton layer as it tures.

is rolled into the finisher lap the requisite amount of moisture to substantially restore JAMES L. BYERS.

its natural moisture content, and then trans- ROBERT S. MITCHEM. 

